With Windows 8 now a player in the Operating System Arena, it’s time we take a look at making your everyday tasks a little easier.

Lets take a look at 100.. yes I said it. 100 Windows 8 shortcuts that will make your life not only a whole lot simpler, but also a lot more productive. (Just to be nice guy, I’ll also throw in an additional 11 shortcuts at no extra cost).

For arguments sake, I am going to use “WIN” for the windows key. So, whenever you see WIN, please note that I am making reference to the Windows Key.

WIN : Switches between Metro Screen and last accessed application.

WIN+C : Accesses the charms bar

WIN+Tab : Accesses the Metro Taskbar

WIN+I : Accesses the Setting charm

WIN+H : Accesses the Share charm

WIN+K : Accesses the Devices charm

WIN+Q : Accesses the Apps Search screen

WIN+F : Accesses the File Search screen

WIN+W : Accesses the Settings Search screen

WIN+P : Accesses the Second Screen bar

WIN+Z : Brings up the App Bar when you have a Metro App running

WIN+X : Accesses the Windows Tools Menu

WIN+O : Locks screen orientation

WIN+E : Opens “Computer”

WIN+R : Opens the Run dialogue box

WIN+V : Views all active Toasts/Notifications

WIN+U : Opens the Ease of Access Center

WIN+. : Moves the split screen to the right

WIN+Shift+. : Moves the split screen to the left

WIN+Ctrl+F : Opens Find Computers dialogue box

WIN+Shift+V : Views all active Toasts/Notifications in reverse order

WIN+PrtScn : Takes a screenshot of the screen and automatically saves it in the Pictures folder as Screenshot(#) – incrementing the # with each screenshot

WIN+Enter : Launches Narrator

WIN+Pause/Break : Opens the System page

WIN+1…10 : Launches a program pinned on the Taskbar in the position indicated by the number or, accesses a running program on the Taskbar inn the position indicated by the number

WIN+Shift+1…10 : Launches a new instance of a program pinned on the Taskbar in the position indicated by the number

WIN+Ctrl+1…10 : Accesses the last active instance of a program pinned on the Taskbar in the position indicated by the number

WIN+Alt+1…10 : Accesses the Jump List of a program pinned on the Taskbar in the position indicated by the number

WIN+B : Selects the first item in the Notification Area and then use the arrow keys to cycle through the items Press Enter to open the selected item

WIN+Ctrl+B : Accesses the program that is displaying a message in the Notification Area

WIN+T : Cycles through items on the Taskbar

WIN+M : Minimizes all windows

WIN+Shift+M : Restores all minimized windows

WIN+D : Shows/Hides Desktop (minimizes/restores all windows)

WIN+L : Locks Computer

WIN+Up Arrow : Maximizes current window

WIN+Down Arrow : Minimizes/restores current window

WIN+Home : Minimizes all but current window

WIN+Left Arrow : Tiles window on the left side of the screen

WIN+Right Arow : Tiles window on the right side of the screen

WIN+Shift+Up Arrow : Extends current window from top to bottom of the screen

WIN+Shift+Left/Right Arrow : Moves the current window from one monitor to the next

WIN+F1 : Launches Windows Help and Support

Alt : Displays a hidden Menu Bar

Alt+D : Selects the Address Bar

Alt+P : Displays the Preview Pane in Windows Explorer

Alt+Tab : Cycles forward through open windows

Alt+Shift+Tab : Cycles backward through open windows

Alt+F4 : Closes the current window / Opens the Shut Down Windows dialogue box from the Desktop

Alt+Spacebar : Accesses the Shortcut menu for the current window

Alt+Esc : Cycles between open programs in the order that they were opened

Alt+Enter : Opens the Properties dialogue box of the selected item

Alt+PrtScn : Takes a screenshot of the active Window and places it in the clipboard

Well, it turns out Microsoft XP isn’t dead after all. All the hype over “Dump XP, and get into Windows 7 or 8… ASAP” has been given a “stay of execution” by the recent hack spotted by betanews. The hack involves utilizing Microsoft’s existing support of POSReady machines until 2019. It just so happens that these machines also run XP SP3, but in a 32 bit flavor.

The updates provided to these POSReady machines are essentially the same updates that would’ve been provided to the average user had support not ended for these machines. The only caveat is that these POSReady machines utilitze a stripped down version of the WinXP retail release (which is designed for POS applications exclusively). Therefore, it is essential to disclose that had MS not ended support for the WinXP full versions, you might have gotten more updates compared to what this hack will provide you with.

All that aside, with this Hack you can essentially get continued updates until 2019. How cool is that?

This is how it is done.

Create a text document, and call it XP.reg. You’ll need to make sure .reg is the proper extension — so not “XP.reg.txt”. If it’s not showing up as a registry file, open any folder, go to Tools > Folder Options, select View and check ‘Show hidden files and folders’. Also, uncheck “Hide extensions for known file types”. That should fix the problem.

Right-click the file, and select Edit. Paste in the following:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\WPA\PosReady]

“Installed”=dword:00000001

Save it, and then double-click the file. That will make that change to the registry. That’s all you need to do. Windows will now automatically fetch updates designed for POSReady 2009, ensuring XP remains protected for the foreseeable future.

This trick only works for 32-bit editions of XP, but there’s a workaround for 64-bit versions here.

Of course, there is no way of knowing with any amount of certainty how long this hack will remain open. Microsoft could put a stop to it at any moment. Also, there is a possibility that all the updates downloaded as a result of this hack might not be applicable to your system. Buy hey, if you get an extra 5 years out of the deal…. why not?

Although Microsoft ceased support for the XP operating system in April, it just goes to show that people aren’t willing to give up on the best-selling Microsoft Operating System just yet.

Greece based developer “Harkaz” started the project back in September 2013 as a result of being forced into a new operating system by Microsoft. “Many users, including me, who won’t be able to upgrade their old machines to a newer OS would like to easily install all Windows updates in one convenient package”, said Harkaz. He later stated, “Windows XP Unofficial SP4 ENU is a cumulative update rollup for Windows XP (x86) English. It can be applied to a live Windows XP system which has SP1 at minimum, installed or it can be slipstreamed (integrated) into any Windows XP Installation Media.” Hence, the dubbed ‘SP4 for XP’.

Harkaz continued in saying that the SP4 release includes updates for MOST Windows XP components. These include:

MCE and Tablet PC

Request only hotfixes

Microsoft .NET Frameworks 1.0 (Tablet only), 1.1, 3.5, & 4.0

Integrated POS ready security updates

Regardless of whether you are a dedicated XP enthusiast or not, installing patches not verified by Microsoft has it’s inherent risks. However, running XP as it (with no support offered anymore) might be just enough to persuade someone to see what is on the other side of the fence.

As always, make sure you have your system up to date, and backups are in your data recovery plan.

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